Wednesday, November 11, 2015

This colorful and beautiful Thanksgiving Banner is easy to make and will look beautiful hanging up this holiday season! And guess what? It's made from everyday materials like washi tape, paint chips, straws, and popsicle sticks!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Hubby and I just finished watching Sound of Music. Wow! That was really a marathon of music. I can't believe that the singers had the stamina to last three hours. I felt exhausted just watching them!

(Did you watch it? I completely melted when I heard the head nun singing "Climb every mountain." Wow. Voice as like butter, I tell ya.)

Back to today's post. Here are the promised Thanksgiving photos. Ermm.... looking through them, I realize now that they're mostly of food. I gave hubby the camera for the night while I hung out with the kids. He came back with lots of food photos... so you could tell what he was mostly focused on. :) Just imagine some people congregating around the food and then you've got the gist of our Thanksgiving.

Happy Friday, friends!

I took this photo before the evening's events. Chuck just looked too adorable and I knew that the outfit would be covered with food by the end of the night.

Yum.

*Drool*

I'm getting hungry again...

Yurmmm.... pie...... I wonder what we have in our fridge to snack on....

Thursday, November 29, 2012

So I took the plunge and tried creating illustrations to go with my "Give Thanks" poem. Instead of taking the traditional paper and pen route that I used for my Tulip Time Book, this time I tried my hand at digital art.

Special thanks to hubby for helping me to figure out how to convert my .blah blah files to another set of .blah blah files so that I could ultimately compress them into .what-the-heck-is-happening-my-computer-is-freezing-again files. (As you can tell, I'm quite computer savvy... ehhh... not really.)

Monday, November 26, 2012

I've always been a savory type of gal. I like eating sweets occasionally, but I always have room in my tummy for salty snacks.

(By the way, sorry hubby for devouring that bag of chips the other day.)

Anyway, back to this post. This Thanksgiving (which shall hereafter be called "Cakesgiving"), everything changed. Our aunt (yah, the same one that made Chuck's Hungry Caterpillar cake) fully embraced our new dietary restrictions and made a gluten-free triple layer carrot-cheesecake-carrot cake.

Oh.
My.
Goodness.

One bite and I felt myself leaving my body and floating away to sugar heaven.

Carrot cake? Ooh yeah, it was delicious and moist.
Cheesecake center? Um, yes please. It's was creamy with just a bit of tang.
And that cream cheese frosting? To. Die. For.

(Just thinking about that cake now makes my toes curl.)

I never got a chance to get the recipe. Rats. But fortunately, I did take tons of photos of her making it. (This was me "helping" out with Thanksgiving preparations.) So, dear reader, I present to you some delicious cake photos.

(Warning- If you're on a diet or thinking about going on a diet, please avert your eyes. Read another post. Take a walk. Eat a rice cake. Just turn away and don't look at the photos.)

Ooh, mix it!

Yeah, crack those eggs...

Ooh, sugar...

Softened cream cheese... yuuuuuuuum....

Take a whiff. Can you smell it? Yup, that's warm carrot cake fresh from the oven...

I'm totally drooling. Oh baby, whisk that icing!

Oh. My. Goodness. My pulse just quickened...

Ack. My toes are curling.

If only they I had taste-o-vision. Then I could reach in and take one more delicious bite.

It was really the best cake I've ever had.
Ever.
Ever ever.

Phew.

I don't know about you, but it's time for me to cool myself off with a nice cold glass of milk.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Hubby, Chuck, and I had a pretty busy holiday. We "helped" one aunt with Thanksgiving preparations (Erm.... does munching on food and chatting count as helping? Tee hee hee....). And on Thanksgiving we celebrated by eating two back-to-back Thanksgiving lunches.

Yah, our car definitely sat a bit lower that day.

It was so nice seeing everyone and meeting our new niece. She is just so sweet and precious. Even though it's only been about a year since Baby Chuck was born, I forgot how small newborn babies are.

Here are some photographs from both family get-togethers:

Hubby was such a trooper. He had allergies, so he had to wear a mask for a bit....

Thursday, November 22, 2012

A couple of days ago hubby and I finally opened up our Thankfulness Jar. The slips of paper point out that we were thankful for three things in life:

(1) Friends and family

(2) Sleep

(3) Heat and food

Hmmm...

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with friends, family, good food, and long turkey-induced naps. I'll be stuffing my face and snapping lots of photos to upload next week. To keep the Thanksgiving spirit rolling, here are some photos from our Toddler Time Thanksgiving party. Once again the teachers were super sweet and threw a great bash for the kids.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! Eeek. I know you're probably busy with plans and preparations. But, on the off chance that you have some free moments to spare (or children to entertain), here are some last minute Thanksgiving themed crafts and recipes:

Friday, November 16, 2012

Last night I finally succeeded in crapting a cardboard roll kaleidoscope. Yes!

Please excuse me while I do a happy dance.

My crapting dreams finally came true. This was actually my fifth attempt at making a kaleidoscope. Yup, I tried four previous iterations and failed miserably. So here's a big virtual thank you to Genuine Mudpie for her beautifully detailed and photographed set of directions.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Turkey Paper Plate Hat

This Friday, Baby Chuck (wait, should I call him Toddler Chuck since he's now older than one? Hmm...)

Back to what I was saying... this Friday our local library is holding a special Thanksgiving party for the babies and toddlers. Last month they put together such a nice Halloween party, so we're really looking forward to seeing what surprises are in store.

I wanted to help contribute to the festivities. After finding this great paper plate hat tutorial from Alphamom, I made a whole flock of turkey paper plate hats for the kids.

Note: This was like the only good photo that we got of Baby Chuck wearing the hat. It's a miracle that he sat still and din't rip it off.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Last month's mochi flavor was pumpkin. This month I'm channeling the Thanksgiving spirit and made cranberry mochi cake.

What? Are those sounds of disbelief I hear? Hubby shared your similar fears, but after trying my first batch he ate his words (and nearly a fifth of my mochi cake!) I can't blame him. The cake was chewy, sweet, and tangy.

(Note: I'm a recipe copy-cat. The mochi recipe is from the amazing Tiny Urban Kitchen. I just swapped out red bean paste for cranberry sauce.)

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease your pan well because the cake is super sticky. I used a jelly roll pan, so my cake was pretty thin.
- Mix the first four ingredients together well.
- Mix in the whole can of cranberry sauce.
- Bake for approximately 45 minutes (or until the edges are slightly brown).
- Let cake cool. Guard it from hungry husbands.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Hi everyone. Did you vote yesterday? I took Baby Chuck into the voting booth. He wasn't too sure about the candidates, but he was very excited about pushing the buttons.

As I sit here and watch the results coming out on tv, I thought I would post my adventures crapting this egg carton wreath. Since this DIY involves crap (egg carton), it technically should be posted on Friday. But, I was so happy with how it turned out that I just couldn't wait. (I also took a bunch of photos of the flowers for my blog facelift. Do you like it?)

I think this is my favorite crapt so far. It's pretty, cheery, and colorful. It's also super easy to make.

Step 6: Glue everything onto the wreath (I glued the leaves first, then the "hello," then the big flowers, and then the small flowers)

Happy Wednesday!

Let's keep in Contact!

Like kids crafts and activities? Then you'll definitely want to check out this awesome craft ebook! It contains 115 pages of unique crafts written by 18 kid craft loving moms! And, it costs only $12.99!

And, you can always find fun ideas on my Pinterest,Facebook,Instagram, or Twitteraccounts! (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.)

So it's been about a week that we've been storing things that we're thankful for in our Jar of Thanks. At first it was a bit strange to keep jotting down notes, but now I'm beginning to like it. Each time I write and drop a note I'm acknowledging something good in our life.

Lately I've also been making it a point to thank others more. "Thank you" is only two small words, but I think they will grow a spirit of gratitude in me. I've also been trying to explain why I appreciate what somebody did. Then maybe the other person will feel loved and appreciated with my verbal acknowledgement.

Here's hoping that it works.

(Funny side note: I told hubby that I was trying to say "Thank you" more, and he responded, "Is that why you've been saying thank you so much lately?" Oh dear. Oh well, let's see how this all goes.)

(By the way, thank you, dear reader for visiting this blog. Whether you're a first time or frequent visitor, I appreciate your interest and support. It encourages me to keep on blogging and crafting.)

Friday, November 2, 2012

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought I'd try something new. This month, I'm working hard at being thankful for things. I don't know about you, but it's so easy for me to start wishing I had more or wishing I was someone else doing something else.

I really don't like feeling this way. So this month I'm figuring out ways to shoot those thoughts down (Katniss Everdeen style, of course).

So let's begin this journey with a crapt that will (hopefully) help me to be more thankful. This week's crapt is a container which will hold our daily record of things we're thankful for. Inspired by this awesome post, I made my own batik-style paper and used it to cover the container.

Step 2: Measure and cut out two sheets of paper. One sheet will cover the top of your container. The other will cover the container's sides. (Note: I just used a paper bag. For the most part this worked just fine. But you'll notice that my final colors just aren't
that bright. I think using white paper probably would have worked better.)

Step 3: Draw your design with crayon. Be sure to press hard and cover your entire sheet with crayon. This process will take a long time and your fingers and wrists may get sore. (Ok, I admit. I've got weak wrists and had to take several breaks.)

Here I drew the design and then had to go back and color in the background too

As you can see, crumpling the paper added lovely black lines. Also, I forgot to color in parts of the paper, resulting in black areas near the paper towel.

Now I probably don't need to tell you this... but try your best to not touch the paint. Otherwise you'll end up with lovely hands like mine...

Does this make me a real artist?

Step 7: Let your paper dry. (It won't take very long.)

Step 8: Glue your paper onto your container. I found my design to be rather dark, so I painted a green heart to lighten everything up.

Step 9: Create mini "I'm thankful" sheets.

I've placed the container, sheets of paper, and a pencil near our television. Every day hubby and I are going to record at least one thing that we're thankful for and place it in the container. Hopefully this act of recording daily blessings will help grow a spirit of thankfulness in us.